Take a Breather
Box Breathing, also called Square Breathing or Sama Vritti Pranayama, is a technique used by taking slow, controlled deep breaths to return your body to its natural rhythm. It can also heighten performance, lower blood pressure, increase concentration while also being a powerful stress reliever.
This technique can be beneficial to anyone and used by athletes, U.S. Navy SEALs, police officers, nurses, security officers and karate practitioners.
Intentional deep breathing can calm and regulate the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS, which controls heart rate, respiration, temperature and other bodily functions, has two main branches – Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PSNS). The SNS is a physiological accelerator, stimulating the fight-or-flight “stress” response – preparing your body to respond to some perceived threat. The PSNS acts as the body’s braking system – responsible for calming the body by decreasing heart rate, slowing respiration, reducing cortisol levels, etc.
Deep diaphragmatic (abdominal) breathing encourages full oxygen exchange. The deeper the breath, the greater the trade of incoming oxygen for outgoing carbon dioxide. The airways transport oxygen-rich air into your lungs and from there into the cardiovascular (blood) system. Although the brain is only about 2% of the total body weight in humans, it receives 15-20% of the body's blood supply.
The slow holding of breath allows CO2 to build up in the blood. An increased blood CO2 enhances the cardio-inhibitory response of the vagus nerve when you exhale and stimulates your parasympathetic system.
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